Signs in buildings that direct people from place to place or identify locations sometimes have a message both in print, to be read by sighted people, and in Braille to be read by blind people. There has been a general trend toward putting Braille on signs, but this trend has been greatly accelerated because of federal legislation requiring that Braille be placed on architectural signs, both new and old.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,245,744 and 5,403,189 a method and apparatus for placing spherically shaped members into holes on sign faces to form Braille letters. Those patents, however, required a cumbersome manual pick-up and insertion of each member into a hole, which was time consuming, labor intensive and inefficient. The present invention semi-automates that process, thereby allowing for increased productivity and savings of both time and labor cost.
Accordingly, there is a need for an easy-to-use handheld apparatus for applying Braille to a sign face that overcomes the aforementioned problems.